Astros Live Game Feed: Game 29 Preview

The Houston Astros are on the cusp of their first winning streak of 2016.

After winning their second series of the year against the Minnesota Twins, and achieving back to back victories for the first time this season, the Astros host, the AL West leading Seattle Mariners for a four-game set. Last week the Mariners took two games out of three in Safeco Field, and now the Astros will look to return the favor at Minute Maid Park.

GAME 1: Wade Miley (2-2, 5.06) vs Chris Devenski (0-1, 1.45)

Miley is coming off his first career shutout which was against the Royals. After a shaky a start, he appears to have turned a corner and has won his past two starts. Miley is 2-0 with a 2.63 ERA against the Astros over his career, and 1-0 with a 3.18 ERA in Minute Maid Park. Several Astros do have success hitting against him; Altuve is batting .583, Evan Gattis is .500 against him, and Carlos Gomez is hitting .333 with a home run. Not surprisingly, being a left-handed pitcher, right-handed batters have had much more success against Miley and are hitting .315 against him on the year. Miley, a fly ball pitcher, has also given up four home runs on the year, so if he is to continue his winning ways, he will need to eliminate those against the powerful Houston lineup.

Devenski has been one of the few bright spots on the pitching staff throughout the Astros’ early season woes. After making several outstanding relief appearances, Devenski made his first MLB start in Oakland, giving up only two earned runs in five innings pitched. He went on to record the loss in the 0-2 defeat as the Astros offense laid an egg. Now moving on to Seattle, Devenski will look to continue his success against left-handed batters, which are hitting a mere .152 against him, and start to develop a new game plan against righties, which are batting .324.

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Devenski, a right-hander, does have a very unconventional delivery and starts his wind up from the extreme left side of the rubber, which has the ball leaving his hand right in line with a left-handed batters forehead. While this creates an intimidating pitch angle for lefties, it does create a pitch plane more delectable to right-handed batters. Look for Devenski incorporate his curveball a bit more than his change up this outing. He has a good changeup for lefties, but righties can catch it easier from their angle, and get a good swing on it. His line drive rate on batted change ups is 45%, which is much higher than any other pitch.

**Statistics provided by MLB.com & Baseball-Reference**